The evening news brought the Vietnam War into American living rooms, but once the news was over, so was the war. Prime-time shows brought nary a mention of it as networks looked to bring uncontroversial content to the broadest possible audience. But the war simmered below the surface as subtext, and when enough years passed, television would finally take it on as a subject.
鈥淕omer Pyle, U.S.M.C.鈥� (1964-1969)
鈥淕omer Pyle, U.S.M.C.鈥� premiered on CBS six weeks after the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin resolution authorized U.S. combat troops in Vietnam, and the daft comedy was among the chief images of the military in American homes through the peak of U.S. involvement in 1969. Naturally, the show about a country rube in the Marine Corps never directly mentioned the war. But most of the real-life Marines who marched in its introduction would soon be fighting in Vietnam. later said watching that intro was difficult, knowing some of those men had died.
鈥淎ll in the Family鈥� (1971-1979)
It would take 鈥淎ll in the Family鈥� to bring the war into prime-time discourse. The CBS comedy owed its popularity to timely political bickering between cantankerous patriarch Archie Bunker (Carroll O鈥機onnor) and his liberal-minded son-in-law Michael 鈥淢eathead鈥� Stivic (Rob Reiner). Vietnam was the sole subject of a landmark 1976 episode where a draft-dodging fugitive friend of Michael鈥檚 comes to Christmas dinner, and an explosive argument ensues. 鈥淲hen the hell are you going to admit that the war was wrong?!鈥� Michael shouts. A friend of Archie鈥檚 whose son died in the war shocks him by taking his son-in-law鈥檚 side.
鈥淢(asterisk)A(asterisk)S(asterisk)H鈥� (1972-1983)
Set in the Korean War of the early 1950s, 鈥淢(asterisk)A(asterisk)S(asterisk)H,鈥� the CBS dramedy about wisecracking U.S. Army doctors, was among the most popular shows in the country during the Vietnam War鈥檚 final years. It was heavy with anti-military, anti-war sentiment, evoking the zeitgeist of a Vietnam-exhausted populace. 鈥淲ar isn鈥檛 Hell,鈥� says in a typical line. 鈥淭here are no innocent bystanders in Hell, but war is chock full of them.鈥� (The Robert Altman film the show stemmed from deliberately minimized references to Korea to maximize its unspoken commentary on Vietnam.)
鈥淭he A-Team鈥� (1983-1987)
Television's first regular portrayal of Vietnam veterans came in the form of a cartoonish crew of daring mercenaries that reflected the era of Reagan and Rambo. NBC鈥檚 鈥淭he A-Team,鈥� whose members included a mohawked-and-gold-chained and a cigar-chomping George Peppard, were a 鈥渃rack commando unit鈥� who were innocent fugitives from military justice and worked as mercenaries pulling off weekly capers. Explosions and jumping cars abounded. In a fourth-season episode, the team returns to Vietnam for a job. Peppard鈥檚 Hannibal momentarily struggles with dark war memories before getting back to the lighthearted action.
鈥淭he Welcome Home Concert鈥� (1987)
HBO aired and helped organize a 1987 charity concert dubbed 鈥淲elcome Home鈥� that billed itself as the warm celebration Vietnam War veterans never got upon their return. Performers included James Brown, Linda Ronstadt and Stevie Wonder. The July Fourth concert was not a militaristic affair, and had a hate-the-war, love-the-troops vibe. Some of the most anti-war songs of the 鈥�60s were performed by artists like John Fogerty and Crosby, Stills & Nash. The event would be a harbinger of a wave of cultural nostalgia and reckoning as baby boomers began turning 40 and were in the mood to reflect.
鈥淭our of Duty鈥� (1987-1990)
With 鈥淭our of Duty,鈥� the Vietnam War finally came to prime time. The CBS series that premiered in 1987 showed actual combat and the young men who fought and died in it. It might have been called 鈥淧latoon: The Series,鈥� after the Vietnam film that had just won best picture at Surprisingly gory and gritty for a network show, it had all the hallmarks of the era鈥檚 many Vietnam movies. But executives seeking lower costs and higher ratings 鈥� which never came 鈥� eventually moved production from Hawaii to California and introduced romances and soapy plotlines typical of TV dramas.
鈥淐hina Beach鈥� (1988-1991)
And suddenly, there were two Vietnam series on TV. ABC鈥檚 鈥淐hina Beach鈥� was part-鈥淢(asterisk)A(asterisk)S(asterisk)H,鈥� part-鈥淕rey鈥檚 Anatomy,鈥� part-鈥淢ad Men.鈥� Set in a wartime evacuation hospital 鈥� the title was the Americans鈥� nickname for My Khe Beach in 膼脿 N岷祅g 鈥� it focused on Army medics and civilians. It was festooned with 鈥�60s songs whose copyrights have kept the series off streaming services. Beloved by critics, 鈥淐hina Beach鈥� made a star and a best-actress Emmy winner of but never found a mass audience. With its cancellation, network TV depictions of the war would disappear for years.
鈥淭he Wonder Years鈥� (1988-1993)
was baby boomer nostalgia in its purest form. The ABC series, narrated by an adult Kevin Arnold (voiced by Daniel Stern, played as a child by Fred Savage), depicts his boyhood feelings and experiences with the backing of sentimental 鈥�60s songs. The specter of Vietnam dominates its first season, which sees Kevin鈥檚 hero 鈥� the big brother of his neighbor and crush Winnie Cooper 鈥� die in the war. In the story shifts to a Black family in Alabama, with narrator Dean Williams鈥� brother a returning Vietnam vet who faces racism at home.
鈥淭he '60s鈥� (1999)
The NBC miniseries 鈥淭he 鈥�60s鈥� was a roundup of the decade鈥檚 cliches that by then had been well-established in movies and TV. The 1999 two-night event was billed as 鈥渢he movie event of a generation.鈥� Its subjects were three Chicago siblings who each go on very 1960s journeys. For high-school quarterback character, that meant serving in Vietnam. He enlists in a gung-ho moment, but by the show鈥檚 second night, he鈥檚 back home with an Army jacket and long hair, drinking to bury his trauma. The show drew a big audience at a time when NBC was ratings king.
鈥淭his Is Us鈥� (2016-2022)
The time-hopping, tear-jerking NBC family drama to delve into the psyche of Jack Pearson (Milo Ventimiglia), who refused to talk about his experience as a soldier with his wife and kids before his premature death. In dual plotlines that run through its third season, with the emotional themes and folk-acoustic soundtrack that are hallmarks of 鈥淭his Is Us,鈥� Jack is shown enlisting to try to protect his drafted younger brother. Decades later, his son Kevin (Justin Hartley) travels to Vietnam to find out what happened to his father and uncle.
鈥淭he Vietnam War鈥� (2017)
In a docuseries that ran over 10 nights on PBS, the Vietnam War got the same hallowed treatment Ken Burns brought nearly 30 years earlier to the Civil War. was not as soft or sentimental as his reputation might have suggested. It was a rare PBS show with a TV-MA rating, and its tone, with a modern soundtrack from composers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, matched the messiness of the conflict. The show went to lengths to include a North Vietnamese perspective along with American and South Vietnamese vets and historians.
鈥淭he Sympathizer鈥� (2024)
It took until 2024 before a fictional television show would attempt a Vietnamese perspective of the war鈥檚 end and its aftermath, though it brought mixed reactions from Vietnamese American viewers. HBO鈥檚 was based on Viet Thanh Nguyen鈥檚 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. The first two episodes of the black-comic limited series depict a harrowing flight during the fall of Saigon. Actors of Vietnamese descent played most of its main roles, including lead Hoa Xuande. But much of the attention given to it 鈥� and its only Emmy nomination 鈥� went to Robert Downey Jr. for his portrayal of four different white American men.
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For more coverage of the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War's end, visit .
Andrew Dalton, The Associated Press
